I haven't had a chance to post anything for quite a while.
Few changes in my personal life has left me bit short of time for Blogging.
I'm writing this because I had experienced something I didn't expect.
I haven't been to the swimming pool for few years now, well not properly.
What I discovered shocked me!
All my training last few years was very bike orientated, and I thought my general fitness is OK. Apparently not.
As soon as a second length of a pool I started to have a problem swimming with the breast stroke, I kept turning left. I switched to the back stroke, it got worse! After few minutes I started to feel bit of pain in my leg - "pectineus" to be precise. The pain felt sort of familiar, but at the beginning I couldn't match it to anything. After four lengths of the pool, it got really painful. Then it hit me! I realized I know that pain, only from a different scenario ( amazing how the brain works). I get that pain when I don't use my "leading" leg during descents on a single track while standing on the pedals. I don't remember ever getting an injury in that specific area so my mind started to look for reasons.
Well, reason is very simple. I always use my right foot forward when standing on the pedals during descents, and so right pectineus is different to left one.
While on the bike it doesn't effect me much, somehow even while pedaling it makes no difference, but swimming is virtually impossible due to unbalance.
Probably in time it can affect other things like walking or running.
It's not like I'm riding four times a week, so I didn't expect any major changes in my body since I went back to the sport, but this is definitely an eye opener.
I consider MTB as perfect exercise for the whole body but obviously one has to be always mindful of repetitive strain injury.
So fellow bikers, before you dial in that perfect balanced neutral position while shredding down the trail, don't forget about the leg on the back, is it always the same one?
I did what worked better and was easier, but I'm afraid it's gonna take some time to put things back to the way nature intended.
I wish I knew about it before, hence my reason to write about it.
